A documentary about voyeurism in graphic novel form, Cyberman chronicles the life of 50-year-old Ari, who streams himself online twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
About the author
Veronika Muchitsch was born in Graz, Austria, and now lives in Falmouth, Cornwall. She received an MA in Authorial Illustration with distinction at Falmouth University in 2017 and graduated from Plymouth University with a BA in illustration. Her stories have been published by Fantagraphics in the anthology NOW and she was the winner of the 2017 Atlantic Press Graphic Literature Prize.
In 2020 she won the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition with an extract from Cyberman.
Summary
Ari lives in a small town in Finland. He rarely leaves his apartment or has any visitors. He spends his days sleeping or sitting in front of the computer, chatting to his viewers and playing music on YouTube. His stream is continuous and compelling: there is something uniquely intimate about this unadulterated presentation of his self.
For over a year Muchitsch watched Ari’s live stream on Cyberman.tv. He was unaware of her project, but she interacted with him through anonymous online conversations using the pseudonym L.B._Jefferies – a reference to the protagonist of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’, who watches his neighbours across the courtyard – and embracing the analogy of Muchitsch’s own voyeurism. Cyberman is isolated in a frame on his stream as well as in Muchitsch’s beautifully painted panels on the page. The author also sits alone, in front of her computer screen, as she watches Ari through a frame and documents his life.
